RESH fabricates the enclosures and installs the hardware prior to final assembly. The R'ANGLE fasteners, painted with a black finish, are pressed into 0.375- x 0.312-inch rectangular mounting holes. They clinch into the metal for permanent installation, leaving the reverse side flush.

Fillon Pichon then installs the load sensors and electronic components, and completes the final assembly--which requires only standard #6-32 thread-forming screws.

When the six R'ANGLE fasteners and their compatible thread-forming screws are installed, notes Art Bernier, systems manager at Fillon Pichon, the result is an extremely tight thread fit that resists vibration and has excellent strip-out characteristics. Even with repeated removal and re-installation of the screws during service, R'ANGLE fasteners hold tight, he adds. Reusability proved to be a big advantage.

"We were looking for production economies, standardized hardware, and performance," says Bernier. "We found them with R'ANGLE fasteners."

A few weeks ago, Ford Motor Co. quietly announced that it was rolling out a new wrinkle to the powerful safety feature called stability control, adding even more lifesaving potential to a technology that has already been very successful.

It won't be too much longer and hardware design, as we used to know it, will be remembered alongside the slide rule and the Karnaugh map. You will need to move beyond those familiar bits and bytes into the new world of software centric design.

People who want to take advantage of solar energy in their homes no longer need to install a bolt-on solar-panel system atop their houses -- they can integrate solar-energy-harvesting shingles directing into an existing or new roof instead.

Focus on Fundamentals consists of 45-minute on-line classes that cover a host of technologies. You learn without leaving the comfort of your desk. All classes are taught by subject-matter experts and all are archived. So if you can't attend live, attend at your convenience.